1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing technology using an error correcting code, and more particularly, to a channel encoding/decoding apparatus and method using a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless communication system, the performance of a link can be significantly deteriorated due to a variety of causes, such as Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), various noises, and fading phenomena of a channel. It is necessary to develop technology in order to resolve the problems caused by noises, fading, and ISI in order to implement high-speed digital communication systems that require a large amount of data processing and a high reliability of data, such as next generation mobile communication systems, digital broadcasting systems, and mobile Internet communication systems. Active research has recently been conducted on the utilization of an error-correction code as a method for efficiently restoring the distorted information and enhancing the reliability of communication.
The Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code, first introduced by Gallager in the 1960's, has been underutilized due to its complexity of implementation, which far surpassed the technology available at that time. However, as a turbo code discovered by Berrou, Glavieux, and Thitimajshima in 1993 shows the performance approaching Shannon's channel capacity, extensive analytical research has been performed on the performance and characteristics of the turbo code. Research has also been conducted on channel encoding based on iterative decoding and graphs. The research as described above has led to the resurgence of the LDPC code in the late 1990's. The resurgence showed that the performance of the LDPC code approaches Shannon's channel capacity when decoding is performed by applying the iterative decoding based on a sum-product algorithm on a Tanner graph (a special case of a factor graph) corresponding to the LDPC code.